I Miss You
by The Jamie Manifest
Summary: Have you ever met someone that you knew within the first 30 seconds that they’d be one of the most important people you will ever know? With the arrival of another average transfer student, a Degrassi student will find this question answered.
1. Prologue

So here we go, the usual beginning.

Disclaimers! DUN DUN DUN!

I don't own Degrassi or any of that. I don't own the characters, but then again I never said I did. So yeah.

I don't watch Degrassi as religiously as I probably should. So do me a favor and skip the flame if something is completely out of context, JUST PRETEND!

And if you wanna criticize me... GO FOR IT. I welcome the challenge )

**PROLOGUE.** (Just so you're REALLY confused.)

_ Have you ever met someone that you knew within the first 30 seconds that they'd be one of the most important people you will ever know? That they will push you to do the undoable, see the unseen, they will dare you to be daring, and teach you what you would otherwise never learn? _

_ ... neither have I ..._

_ I'm nothing too special, to say the least. My looks don't exceed the standard nor do they dip below. I'm pretty average. Pimple here, mixed with a million and one freckles, love handle there, mixed with a little thing I like to call "the automatic belly dancer" aka: I'm not the skinniest girl on the block, but people won't cringe at the sight of me in a bikini (at least I hope not). I don't have many talents, not anything unusual or anything. I'm just a simple girl who loves her guitar and her surfboard._

_ I don't know you. But I'm leaving this for you to tell you that in approximately 6 hours, I'm leaving. Leaving everything I know behind, everyone, etc etc. I'm going far. Farther than I ever thought._

_ And there's a good chance I won't ever be back. It'd be nice if I would be back, but I probably won't. But what I would like you to know, is that this letter, in this closet, in this house, is a symbol of me, and all that this house is. This is my home, my first home and the only one I've ever known. I took my first steps on your living room floor. I fed myself my first bite of who-knows-what in your dining room. I had my first slumber party, my first nightmare, my first time…you know what I mean, my first Christmas, my first everything, where you're going to have your firsts. I want you to enjoy your firsts as much as I did, and didn't, and can't remember._

_ See, we're off to bigger and better things. The Cranston family, is your average joe, grossly boring, let's hug and chuckle at dinner, no shoes past the front door family. I don't have any good stories to tell you about drunken uncle Louie passed out on the couch, because my mother never allowed alcohol in the house. And for whatever reason, my parents have decided to uproot us, and bring us to Canada. Yes. Canada. Why? Beats the hell out of me… I haven't seen snow since I was 6. And now, I'm going to be buried under it 5 months out of the year. Lucky me…_

_ But see, I'm looking at this as positively as I can. (That's what my therapist told me to do.) It's an opportunity to start fresh. Basically start a whole new me. "Olivia Cranston who?" I won't be "that chick that slept with that guy at that party that so-and-so puked on the couch and so-and-so got arrested for going to McDonald's drunk and naked" and I won't be "that chick that's always at that spot on the boardwalk with that guitar singing those songs that…blahblahblahblah" I'll be "that new girl from California" and that's fine with me. I can get my feet on the ground. No one has to know that I'm a new-found girl. No one has to know that I have a past. No one has to know what I've seen and what I've done and what drugs I've tried and who I've screwed._

_ Anyway, enjoy your new house, and I hope to enjoy my new life._

_ So, have you ever met someone that you knew within the first 30 seconds that they'd be one of the most important people you will ever know?_

_ ... maybe I will ..._


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

She was gone. She just, wasn't anywhere. Not anywhere near him, anyway. She was across the ocean, probably smooching it up with Prince Charles and the former Spice Girls. Craig Manning raged at the thought, and took his Ashley withdraw out on the otherwise amazingly good burrito that sat in front of him. The fork, he thought, is the perfect symbol of Ashley stabbing through my heart, with her all-around amazingness. Is that a word? Is she REALLY all that amazing?

"Dude!"

His thought was interrupted by Spinner Mason's chuckle, along with the duck-and-save his spoon created for the poor helpless burrito Craig had just slaughtered.

"Ashley is NOT worth all of this." Craig shook his head. "But…I need her. It's horrible. But I need her."

"No." The tone of that 'no' brought Craig to the conclusion that Spinner was about to out a semi-intelligent thought. An occasional, yet, somewhat nice change of pace for Spinner. "You don't need her. You're just comfortable with her. You two are just so, settled in this, world together, that life without her is just out of the ordinary." In some strange, Spinner-type way, he was actually making some sense. "It's summer. You have plenty of time to get comfortable with some other girl before Ashley gets back, and when she gets back, you're going to be so over her, it's going to make you laugh what you went through for this girl."

"I guess…but Spin. It's so much more than that. Ash and I are so perfect for each other. We _are_ each other! I mean-"

"Craig. Don't even sweat it. You've got me on your side. Let's just say, I've got connections." Spin's voice lowered into a sort of muffled slur, as if he were explaining the ingredients of hot dogs at a hot dog stand. He threw his arm around Craig and stood him up as they walked toward the door, bagged burritos in hand. "I will find you a girl, so perfect, so hot, that you'll be thinking 'Ashley who?' And I'm going to do it, because you're my boy Craig…and because you have a delicious burrito in that bag you're holding, that is just calling my name."

A chuckle or five escaped Craig's lips, the first time he'd heard his own laugh since…a while. But that chuckle was quickly interrupted.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!" Spinner groaned. A 5000000000000 lb. Light blue Dodge Durango sat quite comfortably directly across the back of Spinner's car. It had seemed to make its own little parking spot, which conveniently was blocking Spinner completely in. He groaned again, this time, at the muffled sounds of OK Go blaring through the car, and the completely oblivious driver bobbing, while on a cell phone. "This is ridiculous." Craig couldn't help but chuckle again. If Spinner's love of food didn't do it, his temper and his tendency of using words like 'ridiculous' while influenced by his temper would definitely do it.

If the car being there wasn't enough alone, the door had to pop open, and the driver of the car, not even acknowledging the running engine, hopped out. Craig could see Spinner's face begin to turn beat red, starting at his neck and working its way up to his ears, and finally to his forehead, and Craig knew this poor person was in for it.

"EXCUSE ME." Spinner spoke through clenched teeth, using all of his strength not to start screaming. No response. "HELLO! You're blocking me in!"

What they came face-to-face with, made both of them cock their heads like confused puppy dogs. They expected a soccer mom, or a guy who just didn't seem to care, or maybe even an elderly person.

"I'm so sorry! WOW! I'm an ass..." Replied the face, which was three-quarters covered with huge white-rimmed sunglasses, a flop of dark brown side bangs, and the rest of her head covered with an olive green cadet hat. She looked at her car, then at Spinner's, and then back at hers, as if really trying to analyze the situation.

"Yeah… uhm… do you think you cou-"

"ITS OKAY!" Craig nearly screamed, diving over Spinner's words in a clumsy apologetic manner. "Don't sweat it." He glanced at Spinner, who rolled his eyes and groaned quietly. "Uhm, we weren't leaving just yet anyway…" He chuckled softly.

"Here. Let me move it for you." She smiled, half-embarrassed to be in the situation she was in to begin with. She dove back into the car and sped backwards. Meanwhile, Spinner had caught on to Craig's giddy apology, and gave him a nudge. They looked at each other, with one of those looks where you really are speaking, without saying anything. And what Spinner was saying to Craig was 'Cute.' And Craig replying with a quick 'I know.'

But before they could continue the telekinetic conversation, the girl returned, minus the hat, revealing a bit of a mess–but an absolutely adorable mess in Craig's eyes-of choppy straight dark brown hair. It brushed just against her collarbones, which were gorgeously exposed thanks to her black wife-beater tank. The big sunglasses still covered her eyes, and a good portion of her cheeks as well, so the guys still hadn't gotten a good look of her face, but according to the rest of her, she was cute. She wasn't really skinny, but she wasn't fat either. She was normal, healthy.

She flashed some pearly whites and a couple of dimples and nodded, "There ya go." And she proceeded to walk into the Mexican restaurant the guys had just come out of. The two looked at each other, nudged a few more times, before Spinner began to use force to get Craig back inside.

They found her standing at the front counter, gazing up at the big menu on the wall. Her glasses were on her head, but all Craig could see was a cheek speckled with little dark freckles. Spinner immediately shoved Craig over to the counter, nearly ramming him into the poor girl, before taking a seat at a booth.

Craig stood awkwardly. He cleared his throat and swayed casually, taking quick glances at her gorgeous jawline, her neck, her shoulders, and so-forth, but meanwhile trying to make it quite clear that he was looking at the menu. Their eyes met once or twice, before she giggled.

"Back for seconds?" she asked casually, a bit of sarcasm in her voice. Craig shook his head with squinted eyes, before he followed her eyes down to his hand, where he stood like the jerk he was with the bag of burritos-to-go.

He couldn't do much but clear his throat again, and reply timidly, "Hah. Yeah." He felt his face get hot. But at least it gave him a chance to see her face. Her eyes were unbelievable to begin with. A brilliant emerald green that he'd only hear about in romance novels and on colored contact commercials. Her nose was small, very small, and nearly covered in the same dark freckles that seemed to jump gently across her cheeks, along with a small silver hoop that curled over one nostril. But Craig was mortified with embarrassment all the same. That was until she giggled again, and spoke with more confidence than he could ever pretend to have.

"I guess the food here is just that good? I'm Olivia."

"Craig. And yeah, it's pretty good…" he suddenly realized the sarcasm in her voice again, and just shook his head, chuckling at his own stupidity. She smiled warmly. An obvious wave of disappointment, however, fell between the two of them, as the man behind the counter handed Olivia a large bag and her change.

"I'll see ya around." Her smile continued as she gave him a wink and walked out the door, with an adorable little pep in her step that made Craig absolutely weak at the knees.

Spinner immediately approached him and grabbed his shoulders, almost shaking Craig in a violent excitement.

"Ashley who, my friend…Ashley who?"


End file.
